Halloween
by SuikoTorrent
Summary: Halloween is something Rowen has never done well.


Title: Halloween

Prompt: 50- Spirits

Rating: Pg-13, for language

Author's Notes: Look at how original my title is ; Also, I originally wrote this to be Touma/Shin instead of Rowen/Cye, but realized belatedly how westernized it was. Thus…blah. Thanks to aliccolo for prompting me!

Halloween was something Rowen had never done particularly well. One, his mom could not sew so he never had much in the way of costumes. Two, his father had harped about the "decaying properties" of candy and how a smart man prevents a problem before it arises. Thirdly, they were always busy and never around so they never had time to take him out anyway. His elderly neighbor, a woman who insisted that Rowen call her Grandmother, would walk him up the block and back but that was it, really, because of the fourth thing. Fourth, Rowen had a secret and desperately suppressed fear of ghosts and demons. Once, when he was about five, a neighborhood kid had answered the door dressed as a zombie clown and Rowen had fled screaming into Grandmother's arms. He'd been wary of the holiday ever since.

Now, at seventeen, he was not about to tell Cye why he was so sullen about it being October 31st. Cye looked amazing in his (meticulously historically detailed) 18th century naval coat, with his hair tied back in a slick ribbon and a bunch of lace at his working throat. The velvet hugged his trim figure and gave him just enough curvature around his middle to be beautiful, yet still distinctly male. Even the buttons on his coat caused an extra Cyee in his eyes…

Had Rowen been staring? Oh. Eyes back to the pumpkin in his hands.

Sage and Ryo, also seated at the table, exchanged a look.

"You look great, Cye," Ryo said helpfully. "Doesn't he, Rowen?"

Rowen grunted his agreement and continued to scoop the vile insides out of the pumpkin Cye insisted they carve. A foolish brag, Rowen felt, as the kids didn't even give a rat's ass what your Jack O'Lanterns looked like so long as you had candy.

Cye watched Rowen with an indiscernible expression on his face, then cleared his eyes and smiled sweetly at Ryo. "So do you! You make a splendid vampire."

And he did. Ryo's dark hair and intense gaze were perfect for the part and everyone agreed that a tuxedo and cape suited Ryo's coloring and figure well. They had even managed to tame his hair.

Sage, after some convincing that being a samurai would be too cliché for him, made an absolutely dazzling sultan. The white silks of his pants and coat framed his smooth, bare chest like cream and the bells at his hips were a perfect touch that amused Kento, as Paul Bunyan, to no end. He'd made endless crude comments about hearing Sage coming until finally Sage had locked him outside to rake leaves.

"Mia will be thrilled when she gets home," Cye said carefully, but he was still looking at Rowen. "Thank you for helping, Rowen."

Rowen had planned on saying something peevish and sarcastic when he looked at Cye, but the two of them locked eyes and the words turned to dust on his lips. They stared at each other – Rowen's arm still buried to the hilt in pumpkin guts, Cye framed softly by the kitchen light. Finally, Rowen swallowed heavily and moistened his lips.

"Uh…" he said intelligently. "You're welcome."

Cye spared him a small, pained smile and left the room. Rowen stared at his pumpkin.

"Rowen? You okay?" Ryo asked tentatively. Rowen visibly shook himself awake.

"I just remembered. I left my…thing…in the…bye." He hurriedly rinsed his arm in the sink and abruptly left.

Ryo and Sage sat in silence. "What," Ryo asked, perplexed, "Did we just witness?"

Sage's eyebrows relaxed from where they'd been raised and he tapped a knuckle thoughtfully against his lips. "I do believe," he said after a pause, "that our house is infested with spirits."

Ryo sent him a quizzical look and he smiled smugly. "After all, it is All Hollow's Eve, right? Spirits are theoretically everywhere."

Ryo was staring at him, uncomprehending. "Come again?"

Sage spread his hands in a small, expressive gesture. "Haven't you noticed the way they've been acting around each other lately? They're possessed. No way this would have happened on its own. There is some kind of demon manipulating Strata and Torrent."

Sage, whose family had roots in Japanese tradition, tended to pull these folkloric gems out of nowhere every now and then, whether he believed them or not. Ryo blinked and merely said, "Huh." It made about as much sense as anything he could come up with, anyhow.

"Should I go after them?"

Sage shook his head and his bells jingled. "No. Let it work its course."

--

Rowen found Cye lighting votives on the walkway leading up to the house. Cye looked up and tossed his forelock out of his eyes. "Did you finish the pumpkin already?"

Rowen scowled. "No, I didn't finish your stupid Jack-Off Lantern."

Cye made a face. "Oh, aren't we clever." Smirking, Rowen shoved his hands in his pockets.

"I thought so."

They stared at each other in silence. Cye bent to light more candles. Rowen caught him by the wrist and yanked him back up, protesting, and crushed him to his chest.

"Sorry I'm an asshole," he mumbled against Cye's neck. Cye shivered and weakly put his arms around Rowen's sharp hips, too drained to protest.

"You are so difficult. Why can't you just let things go and enjoy life like other people?"

Rowen stared over his head into the night. "I think too much."

Cye snorted softly and looked up. They watched each other, Cye's hands still resting around Rowen's middle, then they stepped apart.

"You make my life…complicated sometimes, Rowen," Cye said dispassionately, letting his hands slide down and away. "Get inside, it's cold."

Rowen, stricken, obeyed.

--

Ryo and Sage were still sitting at the kitchen table when Rowen came back, looking stormy. He pushed his sleeves up and plunged his hand back into the pumpkin.

"Stupid fucking holiday," he grumbled, tossing another handful of orange, slimy innards into the sink. Ryo and Sage, both being intelligent individuals, quit the room.

It was six o'clock when the first trick-or-treaters showed up. Kento greeted them merrily and handed out a fistful of candy each while Cye smiled and murmured compliments about their costumes. One little princess blushed and a ninja puffed up proudly. As they scurried away, Cye chastised Kento for giving away too much, explaining that they only had three extra bags. Kento was in the middle of defending himself, saying that Rowen could always go buy more since he wasn't participating, when the object of conversation himself came out to the porch carrying his pumpkin. Cye and Kento both watched as he wordlessly set it down, lifted the top and lit the candle inside. As it flared to life, he turned around and left. They stared at the design.

"I think that means 'I'm sorry for being a dickhead'," Kento supplied helpfully.

Cye watched the light dance behind a perfect representation of the symbol for Torrent. He let his breath out and shook his head, but the corners of his lips twitched up.

"I think you're right."

--

Cye knocked quietly on the door. When he heard the muffled call to come in, Rowen sounded distracted. He opened the door to find Rowen with his head buried in the closet, an unbuttoned shirt hanging open on his pale frame, black pants hurriedly put on. Cye smiled.

"Going somewhere?"

Rowen pulled his head out, a tie gripped in his mouth, his hair disheveled.

"Ahcnfunmuhath," He mumbled around the fabric. At the picture he presented, Cye forgot to be upset and just laughed, walking over and removing the tie while at the same time attempting vainly to tame Rowen's notoriously recalcitrant hair.

"Oh, no. Look at you. You're a mess." He smoothed a hand one last time over Rowen's bangs and his smile softened. "What were you doing in there?"

Rowen held out his tie. "Finding a costume. I can't find my hat."

Cye's smile turned into a grin. "What are you trying to be? A Chippendale dancer?"

Rowen leveled a look at him. "Very funny."

Taking him by the hand, Cye chuckled and tugged him out of the room. "Come on, I have some costume pieces in my room we can use to put something together."

"You do?" Rowen blinked, but followed, and then only belatedly remembered to ask, "Why?"

--

Sage smiled at a little girl dressed as a bumblebee as he handed her a carefully selected handful of age-appropriate candy. Unlike Kento, who gleefully tossed in a few pieces more. They watched as Rowen, an unexpectedly handsome gypsy, explained to a little boy who wouldn't move beyond the road why it was okay to go up to the door, that no one would jump out at him. Halloween didn't have to be scary if you didn't want it to be. Sage raised an eyebrow at a beaming Cye.

"You have the powers of a demon. There is no way that character standing in our driveway is Rowen Hashiba."

Cye's smile held a mysterious twinkle. "You'd be surprised how easily he can be manipulated."

Kento clapped a friendly hand on his back and said, "Dude, believe us, we just really don't wanna know."


End file.
